Rafters rescued from Matanuska River

PALMER — Mat-Su Borough rescuers plucked a pair of rafters from a log jam in the Matanuska River Wednesday night.

“They were actually on a log jam they couldn’t get to solid ground,” Mat-Su Borough Dive Rescue Chief Cliff Silvers said.

He said the father and son wound up in their predicament while rafting down the river. They hit the jam and “their boat disappeared,” he said. The log jam was downriver quite a distance from where the dive team put in its airboat at the Old Glenn Highway bridge shortly after 9:30 p.m.

“It’s probably eight miles. I’m terrible with mileage, but it was a long way down there with the airboat,” Silvers said.

He said the father and his son were wearing life preservers and were cold and wet, but it could have been much worse.

“The father was getting hypothermic by the time we got there,” he said.

Palmer and Butte responders also were there trying to spot the stranded boaters.

“We didn’t have a visual on them until we were a quarter mile from them,” he said.

It was the second rescue on the river in two days. On Tuesday, he said, two people and their dog went over the bank in Palmer, stopping just short of the river.

“They actually slid down that bank and were actually on a six foot embankment right above the river there,” he said.

Palmer responders were able to rescue the people and their dog with ropes from above.

“We ended up staging below the bridge as safety for them in case someone fell into the river,” Silvers said.

Water levels in the Matanuska and Knik rivers are high and running fast, according to a borough press release.